Ranking advertisements selected from one or more databases by georelevance

ABSTRACT

A search request is received from a user and the user&#39;s context is determined. A publisher is determined for the search request. Candidate advertisements are retrieved from at least one advertisement database to create an advertisement candidate pool, the retrieving based on the user context and the search request. A set of advertisements are selected from the advertisement candidate pool. A georelevance is determined for each of the set of advertisements. The set of advertisements is sorted, wherein the advertisements are sorted based on, at least in part, the georelevance of each of the set of advertisements. The sorted set of advertisements is then transmitted to the user.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

At least some embodiments disclosed herein relate to advertising systemsin general, and more particularly, but not limited to, selecting one ormore advertisements from one or more databases for sending at least oneadvertisement to a publisher.

BACKGROUND

The Internet, cellular communication systems, television, newspaper,etc., provide diverse communication media channels through which peoplemay receive information and/or communicate with one another.

For example, people may use a website to chronologically publishpersonal thoughts and web links. Such a web site may be referred to as ablog. Another website may be used to search for information (e.g.,Google's search website). Yet other websites may be used for interactingwith online social networks (e.g., Facebook's social website).

When a user interacts with one of the foregoing websites, or others,using a user terminal or user device (e.g., a laptop computer or aniPhone telecommunication device), advertisements (sometimes referred toherein as simply “ads”) are often presented for display to the user.These ads are sometimes presented in response to a user request (e.g., asearch request), and in other cases are presented even without anyparticular request or action by the user (e.g., an ad presented when anwebpage is first loaded onto a user's device).

Advertisements may also be presented to users (e.g., potentialcustomers) that communicate using other forms of media. In addition towebsites, users may receive information and communicate, for example,via cellular phones or other mobile devices, television or videodevices, and even through traditional print media (e.g., where the useris a reader of the print media, and then later takes an action onlineusing information found in the print media).

Publishers of the various foregoing forms of media often make decisionsto select particular ads for particular users or readers. A publisherusually selects ads that will be most effective for attracting businessfrom the user to the service or product provider that has sponsored anadvertisement accompanying or presented during the user's interaction onor with the media.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not limitation inthe figures of the accompanying drawings in which like referencesindicate similar elements.

FIG. 1 shows a system for selecting an advertisement using anadvertising platform and presenting the advertisement to a useraccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of an advertising platform according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a web page having advertisements according toone embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows the sorting of advertisements prior to sending topublishers according to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows an example of weighted advertisement rotation according toone embodiment.

FIG. 6 shows a system for communications between user terminals,publishers, and the advertising platform of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a data processing system which can beused in various embodiments.

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of a user terminal or device according toone embodiment.

FIG. 9 shows a method to select an advertisement from at least onedatabase using the advertising system of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding. However, in certain instances, wellknown or conventional details are not described in order to avoidobscuring the description. References to one or an embodiment in thepresent disclosure are not necessarily references to the sameembodiment; and, such references mean at least one.

Reference in this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the disclosure. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodimentsmutually exclusive of other embodiments. Moreover, various features aredescribed which may be exhibited by some embodiments and not by others.Similarly, various requirements are described which may be requirementsfor some embodiments, but not other embodiments.

As used herein a “pay-per-call advertisement” is an advertisement forwhich some form of compensation is provided on a per call basis (e.g., apayment by a service provider for each call made to the service providerin response to an online advertisement seen by a user on a userterminal). For example, the compensation may be in the form of a cashpayment or credit (e.g., made online via a computer system). Examples ofpay-per-call advertisements and systems therefor are described in U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0162334, published Jul. 12, 2007(titled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO CONVERT A CALL GENERATED FROM ANADVERTISEMENT” by Altberg et al.

Systems and methods to select one or more advertisements from one ormore databases for sending at least one advertisement (e.g., as a set ofadvertisement units) to a publisher (e.g., through an applicationprogramming interface accessed by a computer server of the publisher)are described below. In one embodiment, a method implemented in a dataprocessing system includes: determining a user context; retrieving, viathe data processing system, candidate advertisements from at least oneadvertisement database to create an advertisement candidate pool, theretrieving based on the user context; selecting, via the data processingsystem, a set of advertisements from the advertisement candidate pool;and sending the set of advertisements.

The determining the user context may include identifying a user asbelonging to a demographic category (e.g., a young mother), and theretrieving may be based on the demographic category (e.g., selectingadvertisements for baby products or services). In one example, the setof advertisements are provided in reply to an ad request (also referredto sometimes as a specific ad call). The ad request may include a searchterm, location, and a number of ads requested. The location may be theuser location, or may be another location provided by the publisher forother business reasons or goals.

In one embodiment, the determining the user context comprises receivinga first advertisement request comprising user search data correspondingto a search request of a user, where the user search data includes asearch term. The retrieving is based on the search term, and the sendingof the set of advertisements is in reply to the first advertisementrequest. In one embodiment, the user search data further includes asearch location, and the retrieving is further based on the searchlocation.

In one embodiment, the method further comprises logging performance dataregarding user interactions with the set of advertisements, and addingthe performance data to an historical performance database. Theretrieving is performed further based on the data in the historicalperformance database (e.g., to improve advertisement effectiveness basedon feedback from actual user purchases or contacts with advertisers).The method may include providing an annotation to each advertisement inthe set of advertisements for use in tracking each respectiveadvertisement, and receiving tracking data corresponding to eachrespective advertisement.

In one embodiment, the selecting of the set of advertisements comprisesscoring advertisements in the advertisement candidate pool according toa ranking function. In one embodiment, the selecting the set ofadvertisements comprises selecting the set of advertisements usingweighted advertisement rotation. In one embodiment, the selecting theset of advertisements comprises sorting advertisements in theadvertisement candidate pool into at least a first bucket and a secondbucket, and the selecting further comprises associating the first bucketwith a higher advertisement selection priority than the second bucket.

In one embodiment, the at least one advertisement database comprises afirst database and a second database, the first database storingsubscription advertisements and the second database storing pay-per-calladvertisements. The first advertisement request may be a request for asubscription advertisement from a first publisher. The method mayfurther comprise receiving a second advertisement request for apay-per-call advertisement from a second publisher, wherein the firstand second requests are received using a common application programminginterface (API) supported by the data processing system. This is incontrast to prior systems that use multiple APIs, one for each type ofadvertisement desired by a publisher.

In one embodiment, the sending the set of advertisements comprisessending the set of advertisements to a publisher, and the method furthercomprises eliminating advertisement candidates from consideration forthe advertisement candidate pool that are not in compliance withbusiness rules provided by the publisher prior to the retrieving. Forexample, a particular publisher may require that no adult productadvertisements, or advertisements from particular competitors, be sentto the publisher.

In one embodiment, the method may further comprise receiving, via thedata processing system, advertisements from an advertiser, and storingthe advertisements from the advertiser in the at least one database. Thefirst advertisement request is received through an applicationprogramming interface, and the advertisements from the advertiser arereceived, via a data processing system (e.g., a web server) of thepublisher, through the application programming interface.

In another system embodiment, a data processing system includes memory(e.g., hard drives or flash memory) storing at least one advertisementdatabase (e.g., two or more databases, each storing a particular formator type of advertisement record). The data processing system includes atleast one processor coupled to access the memory (e.g. via localaddressing, a local area network, or via a link over the Internet). Theat least one processor is configured to determine a user context;retrieve candidate advertisements from the at least one advertisementdatabase to in order to create an advertisement candidate pool, theretrieving based on the user context; select a set of advertisementsfrom the advertisement candidate pool; and send the set ofadvertisements.

The disclosure below includes various methods and apparatuses whichperform these methods, including data processing systems which performthese methods, and computer readable media containing instructions whichwhen executed on data processing systems cause the systems to performthese methods. Other features will be apparent from the accompanyingdrawings and from the detailed description which follows.

FIG. 1 shows a system 101 for selecting one or more advertisements usingan advertising platform 102 and presenting the advertisement(s) to auser (e.g., via a social media publisher's website) according to oneembodiment. Publishers 104, 106 each may access advertising platform 102via an application programming interface (API) 108. Publishers 104, 106may send requests for advertisements to platform 102. These requests mayrelate in this embodiment to user requests by users operating userterminals 141, 143, in which one of the users makes a search request toa server of publisher 104 or 106. One example of a user request is asearch request by a user seeking information about a particular topic(e.g., the user enters a text search term into an input device of a userterminal, which search term is sent by the publisher to advertisingplatform 102).

In response to the ad request sent to platform 102, one or moredatabases 110, 116 are queried in order to retrieve ads that may besuitable for responding to the ad request. Each database 110, 116 maystore ad units 114, 116. Alternatively, only a portion of an ad unit maybe stored in database 110, 116, and the ad units 114, 116 may be finallyassembled by platform 102 just before sending to publishers 104, 106. Inone example, database 110 stores pay-per-call advertisements, anddatabase 112 stores subscription advertisements.

In one embodiment, database 116 stores a list of ads for eachcategory/geographic combination associated with ad requests. Thisdatabase provides, for example, candidate subscription ads for theadvertising candidate pool 210 (see FIG. 2) discussed in more detailbelow. The user search data received from a publisher in an ad requestincludes a search location of a user on a user terminal. These ads areretrieved from the database at least in part based on this searchlocation. The ad request also further includes the number of ads desiredby the publisher.

The advertisements stored in databases 110, 116 may be provided fromadvertisers 118, 120. Advertisers 118, 120 may access platform 102directly (e.g., via an API), or publishers 104, 106 may accept desiredads from advertisers 118, 120, and then publishers 104, 106 may providethe ads to platform 102 on behalf of advertisers 118, 120. Ads may alsobe provided from other sources.

In reply to the ad request, selected advertisements (e.g., in the formof ad units 114, 116) are sent to the requesting publisher 104 or 106.The selected ads are assembled by publishers 104, 106 into, for example,a web page that will be provided to a user in response to a user searchrequest.

In general, publishers 104, 106 may maintain media channels of manyvarious types including websites selling products or services, or socialnetwork websites, mobile media, cable and satellite television, videodistribution, and print (e.g., newspapers and magazines). Advertisingplatform 102 may select advertisements from databases 114, 116 that aremost appropriate for the media type of a publisher.

The advertisements sent to a publisher may correspond to various typesof ad products including, for example, pay-per-call ads, presence ads,cost per click, or cost per impression. In one embodiment, advertisingplatform 102 is able to serve ad products (e.g., display ads, InternetYellow Pages subscription ads, pay-per-call ads,cost-per-click/impression products) in different types of medium (e.g.,print, web, mobile, video, television, and social) across multipleplatforms (e.g., vendors, publishers, YP.com, and pay-per-call ads).

FIG. 2 shows the structure of advertising platform 102 according tospecific one embodiment. Ads retrieved from databases 110 and 112 areassembled into an initial candidate pool 210. These are ads that areexpected to be eligible for use with the ad request from publisher 104,106.

An advertisement filtering process 218 runs on platform 102, and may uselogic stored on platform 102 to narrow or reduce the size of the initialcandidate pool. For example, filtering process 218 may narrow the poolbased on particular configuration requests or characteristics of a givenpublisher. The narrowed ad pool thereby provides a set of ad listingsthat will be the final candidate pool from which ads are selected forsending to a requesting publisher 104, 106.

An advertisement selection process 212 runs on platform 102 and isapplied to the final candidate pool that was obtained from the filteringprocess 218 above. In one embodiment, selection process 212 sorts androtates candidate ads in candidate pool 210 with varying algorithms.This sorting, rotation, and particular algorithms may be configured foreach particular publisher that interacts with platform 102.

Selection process 212 may use user search data 216, which is obtainedfrom a publisher based on a search request from a user, to customize theparticular ads that will be sent to a publisher. Also, business rules214 may be used by selection process 212 in order to determine anordering or priority with which ads will be sent from candidate pool 210to a publisher. These business rules 214 may be provided by a publisher,for example, when configuring an account for the publisher withadvertising platform 102, and also may be periodically updated by thepublisher. Business rules 214 may place restrictions on the types orcategories of ads that may be sent to a publisher in response to adrequests.

In one embodiment, advertisement selection process 212 chooses which, ifany, of the available ads in candidate pool 210 should be shown for agiven ad request. The considerations may include relevance (e.g., whatis the applicable user looking for or interested in), as well asbusiness rules 214 (e.g., rules related to the amount paid by a certainadvertiser for the showing of its ads).

In this embodiment, when a large ad pool 210 is present, the pool 210 isnarrowed down to minimize the amount of processing required by platform210. In some embodiments, to all of the candidate ads are scoredaccording to some ranking function, the list of all ads is sorted bythat score, and then ads are selected from the top of this list asneeded to satisfy an ad request. In some embodiments, further detailsmay be used to narrow the list of ads, including eliminating ads thathave already been shown to the specific user associated with the adrequest.

An example of a scoring algorithm is one based on the cost that theadvertiser is willing to pay for advertisements. The advertisers thatpay the highest amount will have their ads appear most often. For acost-per-impression (CPM) ad product, this is readily implemented. For aperformance product (e.g., a pay-per-click advertising model, etc.), thebusiness value depends on the likelihood that the user will click on thead, multiplied by the revenue value of the click. In such a scenario,identifying ads that the user is most likely to click may be a key partof the scoring function. As platform 102 is better able to predictclick-through rates, the more readily platform 102 can optimize adimpressions to increase revenue.

A logging process 220 may also run on platform 102. Performance data maybe received and logged that indicates and records (in historical datarecords for future reference) the manner in which a user interacts withthe advertisements that were sent to the publisher (and that areultimately viewed by the user). This data may be added to an historicalperformance database stored at or accessible by platform 102. Theretrieving of ads from databases 110, 112 may further be based on thedata in the historical performance database. An annotation may beprovided on each advertisement in the set of advertisements sent to thepublisher for use in tracking each advertisement. The tracking datacorresponding to each advertisement may be received directly byadvertising platform 102 or via data from a publisher.

As examples of tracking and logging, tracking data may be provided toplatform 102 in call-backs from a publisher's server (e.g., includinginformation about which ads the publisher decided to show to users), orin call-backs from an end user's Internet browser (e.g., when a trackingpixel is rendered on a display of the user terminal, or when the userclicks on a link having a click wrapper, the user's request is routedthrough a server of platform 102 before being forwarded to its finaldestination so that platform 102 is able to count and log the click).

For pay-per-call ads, calls may be logged in to a call center incommunication with platform 102. Based on the phone number that wasdialed by a user, platform 102 is able to track the call back to apublisher and advertiser. Historical tracking data may be used, forexample, to determine user preferences such as that people don't likecertain ads (maybe for unknown reasons). Future ad delivery anddistribution curves may be adjusted based on this feedback.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a web page 302 having advertisementsdisplayed to a user on a user terminal according to one embodiment. Anadvertising area 304 presents a listing of the set of advertisementssent from platform 102 to publisher 104, 106. Advertising area 304includes a number of ad units 308. These correspond to, but are notnecessarily identical to, ad units 114, 116 retrieved by, or finallyassembled at, advertising platform 102. A set of listings 306 arenon-sponsored (e.g., free) search results presented in response to asearch request of a user viewing web page 302 on a user terminal 141.

FIG. 4 shows the sorting of advertisements prior to sending topublishers according to one embodiment. The final ads in candidate pool210 (after any use of filtering process 218) are sorted. In particular,layering is applied to the final ads in pool 210. The ads in pool 210are sorted into different buckets (or layers) for each publisher. Forexample (Buckets 1, 2, 3 for publisher 104; or Buckets 1, 2, 3 forpublisher 106).

Different priority levels are created (corresponding to each bucket) asto which ads should be sent to a publisher before other ads. Forexample, if it is desired that pay-per-call ads are sent first, then thepay-per-call (PPC) ads in the candidate pool 210 would be sorted intothe first bucket (Bucket 1), and all other ads in pool 210 may be sortedinto Bucket 2. Bucket 3 may be used for yet further sorting by anothertype of ad. In one embodiment, this sorting into buckets will alwaystake precedence over any other rules when selecting ads to send inresponse to an ad request.

Now, within a particular bucket (e.g., Bucket 1), an intermediatesorting algorithm may be applied to further select a set ofadvertisements. The algorithm may be, for example, a weighted adrotation algorithm (discussed in more detail below), or the assigning oftiers and points to the ads in candidate pool 210. Other sortingcriteria may include sorting by yield or based on predictions of revenuefor a particular advertisement.

Then, ads are selected primarily from the highest priority bucket(obtained from the intermediate sorting above) and used in a priorityorder. As one example, if three ads are needed for an ad request, andthere are two buckets from the sorting above, then two ads may be takenfrom the first bucket and one ad from the second bucket in order tofulfill the ad request. The one ad from the second bucket would be basedon the intermediate sorting logic being applied in that bucket (notethat the intermediate sorting logic may be different for each bucket).

FIG. 5 shows an example of weighted advertisement rotation according toone embodiment, which may be applied to advertisements in a given bucket(e.g., Bucket 1) as described above. A fixed sort 502 and a weightedsort 504 are illustrated—each sort may correspond to ads in a bucketfrom the sorting discussed above. In fixed sort 502, advertisers 118 and120 are sorted based on a points score. In weighted sort 504 a weightedadvertisement rotation is used that assigns weights to the ads based onrelative spending by each advertiser, and rotates ad impressions basedon that assigned weight (i.e., ads with higher weights receive moreimpressions). In one embodiment, ads that receive more (or less) totaltraffic relative to their assigned weights are sent to publishers in amanner so that they are given less (or more) impressions to users.

In one embodiment, the weights are based upon points, and the churnpropensity for a given advertiser and the total click volume (across alltraffic sources) can be used to vary the assigned weights up or down.Platform 102 may also segment advertising traffic by algorithm and/or bypublisher to test the impact on traffic distribution curves acrossdifferent configurations.

In another embodiment, ads from candidate pool 210 are sorted intodifferent buckets. Based upon the spend of an ad and other factors, theads are all weighted and then randomly picked from a bucket based uponthese weights. For example, a given bucket may include both pay-per-calland subscription ads. Further, this approach can be turned on or off foreach publisher.

In one embodiment, for fixed sort 502 each advertiser has a number ofpoints based on the amount it is paying for its advertisement. Forweighted sort 504 the order of the ads is shifted around for variousreasons, as discussed below. Here, advertiser 4 is placed in the topslot for this particular search request. Advertiser 1 has already beendelivered all of the impressions that were promised, so a lower orderingis used for this ad request.

After the final ads for delivery are selected per the above approach,then, in at least one embodiment, the advertising platform 102 performsa final sort of the advertisements on the particular businessrequirements of the publisher. These requirements may relate to any oneof several sorting mechanisms. For a given publisher, the ads from abucket may merely be randomized, or ads may be sorted by tiers andpoints (e.g., a point score based on certain business factors such asproduct features purchased) for contractual reasons, or there may besome other final sort order imposed on the set of advertisements sent tothe publisher. In some embodiments, this final sorting may also includesorting by distance of a service (e.g., a restaurant) from a user'scurrent location, or by spending data (e.g., higher spending by aparticular publisher, thus providing higher revenues), or other factorssuch as conversion probability.

In one embodiment, the advertising platform sorts selectedadvertisements based, at least in part based on georelevance ofindividual ads to the user and the user's search request. In oneembodiment, a user's search requests can state a location. For example,a user's search request could include a zip code or a city name (e.g.“restaurants in san francisco”). In one embodiment a user's searchrequests can relate to a category that is location sensitive. Forexample, a user's search request could seek businesses that typicallydeal with local clients (e.g. “bicycle repair”), where a location can beimplied via the user's current context (e.g. at home in San Francisco).

In each such case, advertisements can be considered georelevant to auser's search request and/or context if such advertisements areassociated with a location (e.g. a brick and mortar store) that iswithin a defined proximity of geographic center associated with theuser's search request and/or the user's context. As in the examplesabove, the geographic center associated with the user's search requestcan be derived from the search request itself, or from the user'scontext, or both. In various embodiments, as discussed below, the closera location associated with an advertisement is to a geographic centerassociated with a user's search request and/or context, the moregeorelevant the advertisement is to the search request. In oneembodiment, such georelevancy can be used by the advertising platform insorting selected advertisements, either as a primary or secondarysorting term, or as a boosting factor.

In one embodiment, there are at least three factors are used for sortingon georelevance: a publisher's sensitivity to distance, the primarysearch category, and the input geo accuracy of the search request. Inone embodiment, each publisher has a geosensitivity. In one embodiment,such publisher sensitivity is stored on a profile or other databasemaintained by the advertising platform. In one embodiment, theadvertising platform 102 provides a user interface that enablespublishers to dynamically modify their own profile over the Internet.

In one embodiment, the advertising platform 102 allows publishers tospecify one of a plurality of geosensitivity levels. In one embodiment,there are three such levels.

-   -   1: High geosensitivity. In one embodiment, high geosensitivity        is used for mobile applications and other applications where        location is the most important factor in ranking advertisements.        Note that this setting is similar to a distance sort, and may        impact revenue.    -   2: Medium geosensitivity. In one embodiment, medium        geosensitivity is used where location is a concern, but is not        the most important factor for sorting advertisements.    -   3: Limited geosensitivity. In one embodiment, limited        geosensitivity is used when input geographic data are not        reliable, normalized, or when the application is such that        revenue and contextual relevancy trumps georelevancy. In one        embodiment, limited geosensitivity can be used as a default.

In one embodiment, the second factor used by the advertising platform102 for sorting on georelevance is the primary search category. In oneembodiment, the primary search category is a topic or set of topics towhich the search request relates. In one embodiment, a search categorycan be local or expanded. In one embodiment, a local search categoryrelates to businesses which conduct business in a defined location orset of locations where customers purchase goods and/or services from thebusiness (e.g. a local restaurant). In one embodiment, category deemedlocal focuses heavily on georelevance. In one embodiment, an expandedsearch category relates to businesses that go out to the customer andwhich may transact business in a broad geographic radius (e.g. anInternet based electronic parts supplier conducting business nationallyor internationally). Expanded search categories may have little or nogeorelevance.

In one embodiment, each publisher, using the advertising platform,defines one or more primary search categories and categorizes each aslocal or expanded. In one embodiment, such publisher primary searchcategories are stored on a profile or other database maintained by theadvertising platform. In one embodiment, the advertising platform 102provides a user interface that enables publishers to dynamically modifytheir own sets of categories over the Internet. Alternatively, theadvertising platform 102 provides a set of system wide primary searchcategories where each is categorized as local or expanded. In oneembodiment, where a search request cannot be assigned to a knowncategory, it can be assigned a default value (e.g. expanded).

In one embodiment, the third factor used by the advertising platform 102for sorting on georelevance is the input geoaccuracy, that is to say howprecisely and reliably the input search request and/or user contextdefines a location relevant to the search request. In one embodiment,the amount of weight put on georelevance can vary based upon the inputto the search. For example, where the input search query includes alatitude and longitude, geo weighing can be more precise than if thesearch is a city. Neighborhood and zip code searches are also relativelyprecise and the increased accuracy increases the weight placed ongeorelevance. In one embodiment, the advertising platform provides aswitch to ignore input geo accuracy in the case of publishers thatconvert all searches over to a common geo format. Some providers sendlatitude and longitude for all searches—even if the user entered a city.

Exemplary values for input geoaccuracy are as follows.

-   -   1: High input geoaccuracy. In one embodiment, high input        geoaccuracy searches can include latitude and longitude searches        and zip+4 (centroid) inputs.    -   2: Medium input geoaccuracy. In one embodiment, medium input        geoaccuracy searches can include zip searches and city searches    -   3: Low accuracy input geoaccuracy. In one embodiment, low input        geoaccuracy searches cannot be tied to a definite location with        any degree of confidence. In one embodiment, in such cases,        georelevancy is not used in sorting search results.

In various embodiments, the advertising platform 102 sortsadvertisements based on georelevancy using one or more georelevanceinfluenced sorting techniques. In one embodiment, one type ofgeorelevance ranking is fuzzy distance sorting. In one embodiment, fuzzydistance sorting utilizes a banded approach—where all business within,for example, 1 mile of one another show up together followed by businessin the 1-5 mile range, etc. In one embodiment, within a given distanceband, advertisements are sorted based on other criteria such as bidprice, points or performance. This approach leverages the idea thebusiness roughly the same distance should be based on revenue potential,but those much closer or farther away should be separated.

In one embodiment, fuzzy distance sorting is implemented using acontinuous distance significance equation rather than a step function.Based upon input geoaccuracy, the advertising platform 102 assigns astarting point for a selected granularity of distances. For latitude andlongitude mobile partners, for example, distances starting at 0.1 ml maybe significant.

In one embodiment, a set of distance significance factors for aplurality of distances x from a geographic point can be calculated usingdistance significance equation of the form:y=m×+b

wherein

-   -   y is the distance significance factor    -   x is a distance from a geographic point (typically the search        request center)    -   b is a minimum distance significance factor    -   m is a distance sensitivity factor

For example, a set of distance significance factors can be calculatedfor a set of concentric distance ranges where x=[0.1, 1, 5 and 10].

Distance Distance Away Equation (m = ¼ and b = 0.1) Significance Factor0.1 y = (0.1) + (¼)(0.1) 0.125 1 y = (0.1) + (¼)(1) 0.35 5 y = (0.1) +(¼)(5) 1.35 10 y = (0.1) + (¼)(10) 2.6

What this means is that at 0.1 miles, business in the range of 0-0.125are treated the same—with preference given to better performing oryielding ads. At 5 miles, businesses within a distance band of +/−1.35miles of each other are weighted by performance. The larger the radius,the less distance plays a factor.

In one embodiment, the values of m and b vary based upon thegeosensitivity of the publisher. In one embodiment, the values of m andb vary based upon the input geoaccuracy of search requests. The aboveexample reflects a search request for a search with a very high inputgeoaccuracy. In one embodiment, the advertising platform 102automatically adjusts the values of m and b based on input geoaccuracy.In one embodiment, the values of m and b vary based upon the primarysearch category of search requests. In one embodiment, the advertisingplatform 102 automatically adjusts the values of m and b based on theprimary search category.

In one embodiment, each publisher, using the advertising platform 102,defines one or more values for m and b, where such values can vary basedon the input geoaccuracy and/or primary search categories. In oneembodiment, such publisher values for m and b are stored on a profile orother database maintained by the advertising platform. In oneembodiment, the advertising platform 102 provides a user interface thatenables publishers to dynamically modify their own sets of m and bvalues over the Internet.

As this embodiment is a distance sort, there is no mechanism forincluding listings without addresses. These listings can be includedafter the median distance listing. In one embodiment, a median distanceto the search request for all listings is calculated and non-mappablelistings are slotted after median. This puts these listings at an“average” location. In one embodiment, a filter can be provided todisable listings without addresses.

In one embodiment, another type of georelevance ranking techniques areused in direct search request matches. A direct match means that theinput search request term matches that of the listing. In oneembodiment, such techniques are applicable to zip queries and cityqueries. The match algorithm matches entries by city, by zip, or by zipin a city (meaning a zip search request should match any zip in thatcity). In one embodiment, entries can be ranked based on how closely theentries match the input search request. For example, in the case of azip search request, such case, zip matches are ranked first, followed bycity matches. Within a group of entries matching at the same level ofaccuracy, the entries can be ranked using other factors, such as, forexample, performance.

In one embodiment, another type of georelevance ranking utilizesdistance boosting. In one embodiment, distance boosting is used toinfluence the weighted rotation of advertisements and/or the sorting ofadvertisements which are primarily sorted by other factors, such asperformance. That is to say, distance plays a factor but is not used asthe primary sort In one embodiment, distance boosting utilizes a bandedapproach—where all business within, for example, 1 mile of one anotherare assigned the same distance boosting factor, whereas business in the1-5 mile range, are assigned a different (typically smaller) distanceboosting factor.

In one embodiment, distance boosting is implemented using a distanceboosting equation. Based upon input geoaccuracy, the advertisingplatform 102 assigns a starting point for the granularity of distances.In one embodiment, a set of distance significance factors for aplurality of distances x from a geographic point can be calculated usingdistance significance equation of the form:y=b−mx

wherein

-   -   y is the distance boosting factor    -   x is a distance from a geographic point (typically the search        request center)    -   b is a maximum distance boosting factor    -   m is a distance sensitivity factor

For example, a set of distance boosting factors can be calculated for aset of concentric distance ranges where x=[0.1, 1, 5 and 10].

Equation Distance Away (m = 0.025 and b = 0.5) Distance Boost (in %) 0.1y = (0.5) − (0.025)(0.1) 50% 1 y = (0.5) − (0.025)(1) 48% 5 y = (0.5) −(0.025)(5) 38% 10 y = (0.5) − (0.025)(10) 25%

In one embodiment, this boost is applied like any other applicableweight boost—giving the listing a higher chance of selection formatching search requests. In one embodiment, the equation does not gonegative—once the value falls below zero the boost is zero.

In one embodiment, the values of m and b vary based upon thegeosensitivity of the publisher. In one embodiment, the values of m andb vary based upon the input geoaccuracy of search requests. In oneembodiment, the advertising platform 102 automatically adjusts thevalues of m and b based on input geoaccuracy. In one embodiment, thevalues of m and b vary based upon the primary search category of searchrequests. In one embodiment, the advertising platform 102 automaticallyadjusts the values of m and b based on the primary search category.

In one embodiment, each publisher, using the advertising platform 102,defines one or more values for m and b, where such values can vary basedon the input geoaccuracy and/or primary search categories. In oneembodiment, such publisher values for m and b are stored on a profile orother database maintained by the advertising platform. In oneembodiment, the advertising platform 102 provides a user interface thatenables publishers to dynamically modify their own sets of m and bvalues over the Internet.

The above georelevance ranking techniques can be used in a variety ofsituations. Exemplary use cases are as follows

Primary Search Input Geo Parameter Case # Partner Setting CategoryAccuracy Algorithm Settings Notes 1 High Local High Distance m = 0.25,Same as Significance b = 0.1 example Factor given above. 2 High LocalMedium Direct Match Zip Preference Match and/or zip matches City first,followed by city matches. 3 High/Medium/Low Local/Expanded Low None - noN/A With low geo input relevancy accuracy - algorithm use standardapplies. ranking mechanisms. 4 High Expanded High Distance m = 0.025,Same as Boost b = 0.50 example given above. Max boost is 50%. After 20miles boost goes to zero. 5 High Expanded Medium Distance m = 0.0125,Max boost is Boost b = 0.25 25%. After 20 miles boost goes to zero. 6Medium Local High Distance m = 0.35, Significance b = 0.1 Factor 7Medium Local Medium Direct Match Only use Match City using zips to matchZip or City city. All city matches are sorted first, ranked by yieldvalue. 8 Medium/Low Expanded High/Medium None - no N/A When the geosearch relevancy request is algorithm expanded, applies. geo is lessimportant. And since the partner is less sensitive to geo as whole, usestandard sort mechanisms. 9 Low Local High Distance m = 0.025, Max boostis Boost b = 0.25 25%. After 10 miles boost goes to zero. 10 Low LocalMedium Direct Fixed at The city Match 20% input (zip or Boost city) andapply a fixed boost factor of 20%

FIG. 6 shows a system for communications between user terminals,publishers, and the advertising platform 102 according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 6, the user terminals (e.g., 141, 143, . . . , 145)are used to access websites of publishers 104 and 106 over acommunication network 121 (e.g., the Internet, a local area network, ora wide area network).

In one embodiment, advertising platform 102 handles publisher and adspecific rules without requiring code changes by use of a configurationmechanism. At the configuration level rules may be defined on platform102 for each publisher, for example, using JavaScript object notation(JSON). Some publishers may always place pay-per-call ads first becausethese achieve the best monetization. Other publishers may placesubscription or other ads into the ad rotation so that there is rotationbetween two types of ads. Platform 102 lets each publisher controlwhether certain types of ads are boosted in priority over other types ofads. For example, ads from competitors may be placed fairly low into thead mix (e.g., by putting these ads into a lower priority bucket, ormixing the ads in a bucket in with a lower weight). This may be handledthrough this configuration mechanism. In some embodiments, a publishermay only prefer ads which have phone numbers, or physical addresses, asthe publisher may believe that these types of ads create more value forusers visiting its website.

The user terminals may also access other websites, for example an onlinesocial network site 123 over communication network 121. The userterminals may access yet other websites (not shown). Publishers 104and/or 106 also communicate with advertising platform 102 overcommunication network 121. Advertising platform 102 may also communicatewith ad databases 110, 112 over communication network 121. Advertisingplatform 102 sends advertisements to publishers 104, 106, which send aweb page to a user terminal for display of the web page to the user,which includes one or more of these advertisements as determined by thepublisher when rendering the web page for sending to the user terminal.

The publishers 104 and 106 and/or online social network site 123 mayinclude one or more web servers (or other types of data communicationservers) to communicate with the user terminals (e.g., 141, 143, . . . ,145). The online social network site 123 is connected to a data storagefacility to store user provided content 129, such as multimedia content131, preference data 135, etc.

In FIG. 6, the users may use the terminals (e.g., 141, 143, . . . , 145)to make implicit or explicit search or other requests for services. Theuser selections can be used as implicit recommendations. The publishers104 or 106 may send information related to these requests to advertisingplatform 102. A search request may be seeking information regardingservices at a certain location.

In one embodiment, the user terminal (e.g., 141, 143, . . . , 145) canalso be used to submit multimedia content (e.g., 131). For example, inone embodiment, the user terminal includes a digital still picturecamera, or a digital video camera. At a transition point, the userterminal can be used to create multimedia content for sharing withfriends in the online social network 123.

Alternatively, the multimedia content can be created using a separatedevice and loaded into the online social network 123 using the userterminal (e.g., 141, 143, . . . , 145). The users may manually tag themultimedia content with personal data or data related to the user'scurrent experience at a location.

Although FIG. 6 illustrates an example system implemented in clientserver architecture, embodiments of the disclosure can be implemented invarious alternative architectures. For example, the publishers 104 and106, and online social network 123 can be implemented via a peer to peernetwork of user terminals, where the multimedia content and other dataare shared via peer to peer communication connections.

In some embodiments, a combination of client server architecture andpeer to peer architecture can be used, in which one or more centralizedserver may be used to provide some of the information and/or servicesand the peer to peer network is used to provide other information and/orservices. Thus, embodiments of the disclosure are not limited to aparticular architecture.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of a data processing system which can beused in various embodiments. While FIG. 7 illustrates various componentsof a computer system, it is not intended to represent any particulararchitecture or manner of interconnecting the components. Other systemsthat have fewer or more components may also be used.

In FIG. 7, the system 201 includes an inter-connect 202 (e.g., bus andsystem core logic), which interconnects a microprocessor(s) 203 andmemory 208. The microprocessor 203 is coupled to cache memory 204 in theexample of FIG. 7.

The inter-connect 202 interconnects the microprocessor(s) 203 and thememory 208 together and also interconnects them to a display controllerand display device 207 and to peripheral devices such as input/output(I/O) devices 205 through an input/output controller(s) 206. Typical I/Odevices include mice, keyboards, modems, network interfaces, printers,scanners, video cameras and other devices which are well known in theart.

The inter-connect 202 may include one or more buses connected to oneanother through various bridges, controllers and/or adapters. In oneembodiment the I/O controller 206 includes a USB (Universal Serial Bus)adapter for controlling USB peripherals, and/or an IEEE-1394 bus adapterfor controlling IEEE-1394 peripherals.

The memory 208 may include ROM (Read Only Memory), and volatile RAM(Random Access Memory) and non-volatile memory, such as hard drive,flash memory, etc.

Volatile RAM is typically implemented as dynamic RAM (DRAM) whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. Non-volatile memory is typically a magnetic hard drive, amagnetic optical drive, or an optical drive (e.g., a DVD RAM), or othertype of memory system which maintains data even after power is removedfrom the system. The non-volatile memory may also be a random accessmemory.

The non-volatile memory can be a local device coupled directly to therest of the components in the data processing system. A non-volatilememory that is remote from the system, such as a network storage devicecoupled to the data processing system through a network interface suchas a modem or Ethernet interface, can also be used.

In one embodiment, a data processing system as illustrated in FIG. 7 isused to implement advertising platform 102, servers for publishers 104,106, online social network site 123, and/or other servers, such as aserver to support various advertisement databases.

In one embodiment, a data processing system as illustrated in FIG. 7 isused to implement a user terminal. A user terminal may be in the form ofa personal digital assistant (PDA), a cellular phone, a notebookcomputer or a personal desktop computer.

In some embodiments, one or more servers of the system can be replacedwith the service of a peer to peer network of a plurality of dataprocessing systems, or a network of distributed computing systems. Thepeer to peer network, or a distributed computing system, can becollectively viewed as a server data processing system.

Embodiments of the disclosure can be implemented via themicroprocessor(s) 203 and/or the memory 208. For example, thefunctionalities described can be partially implemented via hardwarelogic in the microprocessor(s) 203 and partially using the instructionsstored in the memory 208. Some embodiments are implemented using themicroprocessor(s) 203 without additional instructions stored in thememory 208. Some embodiments are implemented using the instructionsstored in the memory 208 for execution by one or more general purposemicroprocessor(s) 203. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to a specificconfiguration of hardware and/or software.

FIG. 8 shows a block diagram of a user terminal or device according toone embodiment. In FIG. 8, the user device includes an inter-connect 221connecting the presentation device 229, user input device 231, aprocessor 233, a memory 227, a position identification unit 225 and acommunication device 223.

In FIG. 8, the position identification unit 225 is used to identify ageographic location of the user (e.g., a location may be provided topublisher 104 from user terminal 141 when a user makes a searchrequest). The position identification unit 225 may include a satellitepositioning system receiver, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS)receiver, to automatically identify the current position of the userdevice. Alternatively, an interactive map can be displayed to the user;and the user can manually select a location from the displayed map.

In FIG. 8, the communication device 223 is configured to communicatewith publisher 104 or 106, or an online social network 123 to provideuser data content tagged with other data provided by the user orautomatically provided by the user terminal. The user input device 231may include a text input device, a still image camera, a video camera,and/or a sound recorder, etc.

FIG. 9 shows a method 902 to select an advertisement from at least onedatabase using advertising system 102 of FIG. 1 according to oneembodiment. In block 904, a user context is determined. In block 906,advertising platform 102 retrieves candidate advertisements from one ormore advertisement databases to create an advertisement candidate pool.The user context is used in this retrieving.

In block 908, a set of advertisements is selected from the advertisementcandidate pool (e.g., the ads are selected in order to reply to an adrequest from a publisher prompted by a user search request). In block910, the set of advertisements is sent from advertising platform 102 topublisher 104 or 106.

In one embodiment, in addition to selecting ads based on user context,the ad selection may be further based on user location. As an example ofgeographic relevance, consideration is given to how ads will perform fora given ad request in part based on the location of the user. Forexample, a distinction is made between direct and indirect matches sothat if a user is searching for pizza in Glendale, then an ad for apizza place in Glendale will perform better than an ad for a pizza placein a nearby city. So, a direct match (e.g., either a city name or a zipcode) is given a higher priority over factors that are only an indirectmatch (this is direct and indirect layering).

In one embodiment, ads are generally selected so that the advertiser'slocation is closer to what the user is searching for. Advertisers onlypay for presence when using subscription ad products, and not forspecific impressions or specific value of any kind. So, the advertisingspace is expanded somewhat in order to distribute the ad traffic betterfor these particular advertisers. Although a pure distance sort might bebest for conversions, it is not the most ideal for distributingadvertising value.

One specific example of preparing a reply to an advertisement requestfrom a publisher is now described. In this example, there are two typesof ads (subscription and pay-per-call). A search request is receivedfrom a publisher, and the request includes some context about the adthat the publisher desires to show. Here, a user has made a requestrelated to a terminal location using keywords such as “pizza”,“restaurant”, and “Glendale”. These keywords are next turned intocandidate ads as discussed above.

In this example, platform 102 implements processes related to itssubscription ad listings. These keywords are run through acategorization process in which the word “pizza” is mapped into acategory of “pizza restaurants”, and may be further mapped to secondarycategories of “Italian restaurants”, etc. The location keyword is mappedinto a geography category.

Some ads are sold for limited service areas, and some ads are soldnationally. These categories and locations are used to do a reverseindex search in order to retrieve ads that match the categories andlocations. So, all ads under the category “pizza restaurants” becomesthe initial candidate pool (i.e., this provides ad candidates forsubscription ads). For pay-per-call ads, the keywords and the locationare used to select pay-per-call ads (e.g., within a predetermineddiameter or distance of a user location, or in a zip code associatedwith a particular business location). For example, further candidate adsare retrieved for an advertiser wanting customer calls within five milesof its business, and where the customer has used the word “pizza” in itssearch. These ads are added to the candidate pool.

In this example, a normalization process is applied to put all of theads in the candidate pool on an equal footing so that any of thesorting/selection algorithms can work on any of the ad types in the adcandidate pool. Some de-duping may be applied to filter the results andother filtering performed as discussed above. For example, filtering maybe done based on rules in which a publishers states it does not want anyads of a mature/adult nature, or it only wants ads with phone numbersbecause the publisher's business relies on mobile phone communicationswith customers. After filtering, a final ad candidate pool is obtained.The ad selection processes and algorithms described above are thenapplied to select a final set of advertisements for sending in reply toan advertisement request.

Prior to sending the final ads, the ad may go through a final step ofpreparing them for display. For example, for pay-per-call ads, the adsmay go to another system in platform 102 that generates a call-trackingnumber that is appropriate for the publisher requesting the ads.

In this description, various functions and operations may be describedas being performed by or caused by software code to simplifydescription. However, those skilled in the art will recognize what ismeant by such expressions is that the functions result from execution ofthe code by a processor, such as a microprocessor. Alternatively, or incombination, the functions and operations can be implemented usingspecial purpose circuitry, with or without software instructions, suchas using an Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) or aField-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Embodiments can be implementedusing hardwired circuitry without software instructions, or incombination with software instructions. Thus, the techniques are limitedneither to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software,nor to any particular source for the instructions executed by the dataprocessing system.

While some embodiments can be implemented in fully functioning computersand computer systems, various embodiments are capable of beingdistributed as a computing product in a variety of forms and are capableof being applied regardless of the particular type of machine orcomputer-readable media used to actually effect the distribution.

At least some aspects disclosed can be embodied, at least in part, insoftware. That is, the techniques may be carried out in a computersystem or other data processing system in response to its processor,such as a microprocessor, executing sequences of instructions containedin a memory, such as ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatile memory, cache or aremote storage device.

Routines executed to implement the embodiments may be implemented aspart of an operating system, middleware, service delivery platform, SDK(Software Development Kit) component, web services, or other specificapplication, component, program, object, module or sequence ofinstructions referred to as “computer programs.” Invocation interfacesto these routines can be exposed to a software development community asan API (Application Programming Interface). The computer programstypically comprise one or more instructions set at various times invarious memory and storage devices in a computer, and that, when readand executed by one or more processors in a computer, cause the computerto perform operations necessary to execute elements involving thevarious aspects.

A machine readable medium can be used to store software and data whichwhen executed by a data processing system causes the system to performvarious methods. The executable software and data may be stored invarious places including for example ROM, volatile RAM, non-volatilememory and/or cache. Portions of this software and/or data may be storedin any one of these storage devices. Further, the data and instructionscan be obtained from centralized servers or peer to peer networks.Different portions of the data and instructions can be obtained fromdifferent centralized servers and/or peer to peer networks at differenttimes and in different communication sessions or in a same communicationsession. The data and instructions can be obtained in entirety prior tothe execution of the applications. Alternatively, portions of the dataand instructions can be obtained dynamically, just in time, when neededfor execution. Thus, it is not required that the data and instructionsbe on a machine readable medium in entirety at a particular instance oftime.

Examples of computer-readable media include but are not limited torecordable and non-recordable type media such as volatile andnon-volatile memory devices, read only memory (ROM), random accessmemory (RAM), flash memory devices, floppy and other removable disks,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media (e.g., Compact DiskRead-Only Memory (CD ROMS), Digital Versatile Disks (DVDs), etc.), amongothers.

In general, a machine readable medium includes any mechanism thatprovides (e.g., stores) information in a form accessible by a machine(e.g., a computer, network device, personal digital assistant,manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one or more processors,etc.).

In various embodiments, hardwired circuitry may be used in combinationwith software instructions to implement the techniques. Thus, thetechniques are neither limited to any specific combination of hardwarecircuitry and software nor to any particular source for the instructionsexecuted by the data processing system.

Although some of the drawings illustrate a number of operations in aparticular order, operations which are not order dependent may bereordered and other operations may be combined or broken out. While somereordering or other groupings are specifically mentioned, others will beapparent to those of ordinary skill in the art and so do not present anexhaustive list of alternatives. Moreover, it should be recognized thatthe stages could be implemented in hardware, firmware, software or anycombination thereof.

Advertising Platform Example

An example in one specific embodiment of advertising platform 102 is nowdiscussed below. This example describes certain high-level aspects ofthe logic and flow used for ad delivery. Platform 102 may implement itslogic in Java.

Initial Inputs

This section describes ways that advertising platform 102 may be called.This corresponds generally to a publisher passing a search term andsearch location in to platform 102.

After resolving parameters associated with these inputs, the followingare obtained:

-   -   Publisher partner code    -   User search term    -   User search location    -   Search type: Name, Category, or Term. A “name” search term is        interpreted as a business name. A “category” search term is        interpreted as a category or keyword. A “term” search will be        interpreted by platform 102 according to the “most likely”        meaning        Retrieving Candidate Ads

This section describes the initial step of collecting candidate ads fromdifferent ad sources. In this case, this includes details on how to takethe search term and search location, and to get a list of the ads whichare eligible for display. There are two sources (subscription andpay-per-call) described in more detail in each of the sections below.For a given publisher/ad request, one or both of the sources will becalled to find candidate ads. If no candidate ads are returned, then noads are sent to the publisher.

The first step is to find a set of candidate ads, which can be selectedfrom. Based on the user search term and geography, candidates can beidentified. There are two paths, which may be run in parallel:retrieving subscription ads and PPC ads. The two paths are describedbelow. Note that depending on the publisher configuration, only one ofthe paths may be used.

Retrieving Subscription Ads

This section describes how to determine eligible subscription ads(listings).

First, an internal system is used to resolve the plain text search termand location into machine-usable information. Locations will be mappedinto either lat/lon positions, or other common things like city andstate, neighborhoods, or points of interest (e.g., major airports orlandmarks).

The search term will be matched against both business names andcategories, with the most likely interpretation being chosen. Afteranalyzing the search term, it will be classified as either a categorysearch, with a list of associated categories, or as a name search, witha list of associated businesses, or as an unknown term (in which case noads will be returned).

Based on the determined geographies and categories, a list of relevantads are retrieved from a high performance index which has been preparedto make such retrieval highly efficient.

Retrieving PPC Ads

This works in a similar fashion to the subscription ads, but using asystem which has been tuned towards the pay-per-call model. For example,this will enforce hours of operation, so ads are not shown forbusinesses where the phones are not currently being manned, as calls tothese numbers will generate no revenue. Furthermore, there may be budgetissues where an advertiser only wants to spend a fixed amount of money,so their listings would not be available after they received asufficient amount of calls.

Filtering Ads

Once the list of eligible ads is obtained from each source, there isextra business logic that may depend on the specific publisher that isrequesting the ads. These filtering rules narrow the set of listings tothe final candidate pool.

Filtering may occur during the retrieval step, if the filter is specificto subscription or PPC listings, or may occur after the ads have beencombined into a single list. Platform 102 may support the followingfiltering options:

-   -   address_required will filter out ads with no visible address.    -   phone_required will filter out ads with no visible phone number.    -   business_names will filter out ads with matching business names        (this might be used to blacklist competitors from a specific        publisher's sites).    -   strict_geo_matching will filter out SUB ads if there was an        explicit city or zip in the search, and the ad does not contain        the same city or zip.        Selecting Ads

This section describes the step where the ads are put in the candidatepool, and chooses the ads that will be provided for this specific adcall (i.e., ad request). First, normalization is done to make sure thatthe business rules can be run regardless of the source of the ads. Next,bucketing, scoring, and sorting logic is used to obtain the final set ofads.

The first step in ad selection is normalizing the subscription and PPCads. This includes analyzing PPC performance and bid prices, anddeciding how these should be handled relative to subscription products.

Additional Filtering: Ad Selection may perform additional filteringsteps:

-   -   De-duping. If any ads share the same business identifier, then        only one of each matching listing will be kept. The one kept may        be chosen randomly, to distribute traffic across the listings.    -   Backfill logic. For name searches, depending on the name        searches configuration option, name matches or category matches        may be supported.

After normalization, the ad selection process is run.

The final set of selected ads will be annotated for tracking and loggingpurposes. By recording information about how decisions were made, onecan do bucket tests to see how different algorithms are performing, ormeasure nuances in how the system is behaving.

Formatting Ads

This is the final detail after the ads are selected that will beshown—anything necessary to show the actual listing is retrieved toassemble the final ads. This includes all the metadata (e.g., tag lines,image URLs, etc.) as well as allocating call-tracking numbers.

Once the final set of ads is obtained for display, additionalinformation is retrieved to include in the reply to the ad request. Themethod to get this information is different for subscription and PPClistings—platform 102 may perform these calls in parallel.

Logging

This is how data is logged about what happened with respect to theads—it becomes the core of the feedback loop where platform 102 canlearn and improve over time (as well as use for basic details likereporting results to advertisers and paying publishers).

First, all requests and information about those requests gets logged bywriting a record describing the request to disk. This record includes aunique identifier (UUID) which will be used to join subsequent useractivity to the initial request. For a system more similar to beingreal-time, these records may also broadcast events over UDP which can bemonitored by other systems. The request record will be associated with alist of all the impressions which are being shown: either subscriptionor PPC.

Next, all user activity which can be tracked should also record thatinformation. Clicks will generally go through a special “click wrapper”,which records the information about the click, and forwards the user tothe destination URL. Information about each click will be associatedwith the original request via the UUID which was created to identify therequest.

Information about phone calls is tracked via CTNs (call trackingnumbers). This can be used to measure the performance of the system as awhole.

In the foregoing specification, the disclosure has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope as set forth in the following claims. Thespecification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving over a networkinformation from a publisher, by an advertising platform comprising adata processing system, said data processing system including aprocessor configured to process logic to determine user context, selectand retrieve candidate advertisements and send advertisements, wherein:the information corresponds to a search request initiated by a user at auser interface communicable with a media channel where the searchrequest includes one or more of a search term, a location and a numberof ads requested; and the publisher is associated with provisioning ofthe media channel; determining a context of the user by logging adperformance data based on user interaction data with a set ofadvertisements and adding ad performance data based on user interactiondata to historical data records at a historical performance database,and establishing user preferences based on assessment of the historicaldata records; detecting a geolocation, by a position detection device,of a user device of the user; receiving a publisher geosensitivity levelat a user interface processing at the advertiser platform and storingthe publisher geosensitivity level to a publisher profile stored at anadvertiser platform database; accessing, by the data processing system,the publisher profile for the publisher and identifying thegeosensitivity level, among a plurality of defined geosensitivitylevels, of the publisher, wherein the geosensitivity level specifies alevel of importance, among a plurality of defined levels of importance,that a location has on ranking advertisements; selecting the candidateadvertisements, by a weighted advertisement rotation algorithmprocessing at the data processing system where a weight is assigned thecandidate advertisement based on relative spending of advertisers, andad impressions are rotated based on the assigned weight, the selectionbeing based at least in part on (a) the geosensitivity level of thepublisher identified based on the publisher profile and based at leastin part on (b) a first search category identified by the data processingsystem for the search request, the first search category correspondingto (i) a set of one or more topics to which the search relates and (ii)determined geolocations of businesses or services in a determinedgeographic area within a predetermined distance proximate to thedetected geolocation of the user device of the user; selecting thecandidate advertisements based on the weighted advertisement rotationand electronically storing in a candidate advertisement database on thenetwork, the candidate advertisements in two or more electronic storagebucket locations, where the candidate advertisement are sorted in theelectronic storage bucket locations by higher and lower rankings;selecting and retrieving from the candidate advertisement database, by aweighted advertisement rotation algorithm processing at the dataprocessing system, candidate advertisements for one or more advertiserswhere the candidate advertisement database includes at least one or moreof an advertisement database having subscription advertisements storedand an advertisement database having pay-per-call advertisements storedusing a single API to create an advertisement candidate pool, theretrieving based on (a) the context of the user, (b) the detectedgeolocation of the user device and (c) the search request, whereselecting and retrieving includes one or more of, processing one or moreof filtering logic based on business rules of a publisher and scoringusing a ranking function based on business value, and where selectingand retrieving includes one or more of, processing intermediate sortinglogic using one or more of a weighted sort and a fixed sort andprocessing a final sorting based on geo-relevance and search request;ranking, with a geo-relevant sorting technique of the weightedadvertisement rotation algorithm, a set of the candidate advertisementsaccording to the identified geosensitivity_level of the publisher basedin part on respective distances between one or more locations, of theadvertisers, corresponding to the candidate advertisements and thedetected geolocation of the user device of the user; and providing, bythe advertising platform visible indicia of, one or more, top rankedadvertisements from the ranked set of candidate advertisements to theuser interface of a display device of the user device and displaying thevisible indicia on the display with the user interface for userinteraction.
 2. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising: whereinrankings for each of the set of advertisements is determined using acriterion selected based at least in part on a primary search categoryfor the search request and an input geo accuracy of the search request.3. The method of claim 2, wherein: the ranking criteria comprises is adistance significance factor criterion.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein: the distance significance factor criterion assigns each of theset of advertisements into one of a plurality of distance bands, each ofthe plurality of distance bands comprising a minimum distance from ageographic point and a maximum distance from a geographic point, and thegeographic point is a search center determined using the search requestand the user context, and each of the set of advertisements is assignedto a respective one of the plurality of distance bands where a distancefrom the geographic point associated with the respective one of the setof advertisements falls within the respective one of the plurality ofdistance bands, and wherein each of the set of advertisements is sortedby the respective one of the plurality of distance bands in which therespective one of the set of advertisements falls.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, wherein: the set of advertisements are secondarily sorted byperformance, such that advertisements falling within a respective one ofthe plurality of distance bands are sorted by performance with respectto one another.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein: each of the set ofadvertisements is assigned into one of the plurality of distance bandsusing one of a set of distance factors calculated using an equation ofthe form:y=mx+b wherein y is the distance significance factor x is a distancefrom the geographic point b is a minimum distance significance factor mis a distance sensitivity factor wherein each of a set of progressivelyincreasing values of x are used to calculate a respective one of the setof distance significance factors, wherein for each of the set ofadvertisements, a respective one of the plurality of distancesignificance factors is selected where the distance from the geographicpoint associated with the respective one of the set of advertisements isat least equal to the value of x associated with the respective one ofthe plurality of distance significance factors and less than the nextgreatest value of x.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein: the rankingcriteria comprises a direct match criterion.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein: the direct match criterion assigns a georelevance to each ofthe set of advertisements based on how closely the respectiveadvertisement matches the input search request.
 9. The method of claim2, wherein: the ranking criteria comprise a distance boosting criterion.10. The method of claim 9, wherein: the distance boosting techniqueassigns each of the set of advertisements into one of a plurality ofdistance bands, each of the plurality of distance bands comprising aminimum distance from a geographic point and a maximum distance from ageographic point, and the geographic point is a search center determinedusing the search request and the user context, and each of the set ofadvertisements is assigned to a respective one of the plurality ofdistance bands where a distance from the geographic point associatedwith the respective one of the set of advertisements falls within therespective one of the plurality of distance bands, and a distanceboosting factor is assigned to each of the set of advertisements basedon the respective one of the plurality of distance bands into which therespective advertisements falls, wherein the set of advertisements issorted using the distance boosting factors assigned to each of the setof advertisements as boosting factors.
 11. The method of claim 10,wherein: the performance of each of the set of advertisements isadditionally used as boosting factors in sorting the set ofadvertisements.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein: the distanceboosting factor assigned to each of the set of advertisements is adistance band boosting factor relating to the respective one of theplurality of distance bands, and the distance band boosting factor foreach of the plurality of distance bands is determined using an equationof the formy=b−mx wherein y is the distance boosting factor x is a distance fromthe geographic point b is a maximum distance boosting factor m is adistance sensitivity factor wherein, for each of the plurality ofdistance bands, x is the respective minimum distance from the geographicpoint associated with the respective distance band.
 13. The method ofclaim 2, further comprising selecting the set of advertisementscomprises selecting the set of advertisements using weightedadvertisement rotation.
 14. The method of claim 13, whereinadvertisements in the advertisement candidate pool are sorted into atleast a first bucket and a second bucket, the first bucket having ahigher advertisement selection priority than the second bucket, and theselecting further comprises selecting the set of advertisements usingweighted advertisement rotation.
 15. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium for tangibly storing thereon computer readableinstructions, the instructions causing a data processing system toperform a method, the method comprising: receiving over a networkinformation from a publisher, by an advertising platform comprising adata processing system, said data processing system including aprocessor configured to process logic to determine user context, selectand retrieve candidate advertisements and send advertisements wherein:the information corresponds to a search request initiated by a user at auser interface communicable with a media channel where the searchrequest includes one or more of a search term, a location and a numberof ads requested; and the publisher is associated with provisioning ofthe media channel; detect a geolocation, by a position detection device,of a user device of the user; determining a context of the user bylogging ad performance data based on user interaction data with a set ofadvertisements and adding ad performance data based on user interactiondata to historical data records at a historical performance database,and establishing user preferences based on assessment of the historicaldata records; receiving a publisher geosensitivity level at a userinterface processing at the advertiser platform and storing thepublisher geosensitivity level to a publisher profile stored at anadvertiser platform database; accessing, by the data processing system,the publisher profile for the publisher and identifying thegeosensitivity level, among a plurality of defined geosensitivitylevels, of the publisher, wherein the geosensitivity level specifies alevel of importance, among a plurality of defined levels of importance,that a location has on ranking advertisements; selecting the candidateadvertisements, by a weighted advertisement rotation algorithmprocessing at the data processing system where a weight is assignedbased on relative spending of advertisers and click volume and adimpressions are rotated based on assigned weight, the selection beingbased at least in part on (a) the geosensitivity level of the publisheridentified based on the publisher profile and based at least in part on(b) a first search category identified by the data processing system forthe search request, the first search category corresponding to (i) a setof one or more topics to which the search relates and (ii) determinedgeolocations of businesses or services in a determined geographic areawithin a predetermined distance proximate to the detected geolocation ofthe user device of the user; selecting the candidate advertisementsbased on the ranking criteria selected and electronically storing in acandidate advertisement database on the network the candidateadvertisements in two or more electronic storage bucket locations, wherethe candidate advertisement are sorted in the electronic storage bucketlocations by higher and lower rankings; selecting and retrieving fromthe candidate advertisement database, by a weighted advertisementrotation algorithm processing at the data processing system, candidateadvertisements for one or more advertisers where the candidateadvertisement database includes at least one or more of an advertisementdatabase having subscription advertisements stored and an advertisementdatabase having pay-per-call advertisements stored using a single API tocreate an advertisement candidate pool, the retrieving based on (a) thecontext of the user, (b) the detected geolocation of the user device and(c) the search request where selecting and retrieving includes one ormore of, processing one or more of filtering logic based on businessrules of a publisher and scoring using a ranking function based onbusiness value, and where selecting and retrieving includes one or moreof, processing intermediate sorting logic using one or more of aweighted sort and a fixed sort and processing a final sorting based ongeo-relevance and search request; ranking, with a geo-relevant sortingtechnique of the weighted advertisement rotation algorithm, a set of thecandidate advertisements according to the identified geosensitivitylevel of the publisher based in part on respective distances between oneor more locations, of the advertisers, corresponding to the candidateadvertisements and the detected geolocation of the user device of theuser; and providing, by the advertising platform, visible indicia of,one or more, top ranked advertisements from the ranked set of candidateadvertisements to the user interface of a display device of the userdevice and displaying the visible indicia on the display with the userinterface for user interaction.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 15, additionally comprising: wherein rankingsfor each of the set of advertisements is determined using a criterionselected based at least in part on a primary search category for thesearch request and an input geo accuracy of the search request.
 17. Adata processing system, comprising: memory storing at least oneadvertisement database; at least one processor coupled to access thememory, the at least one processor configured to: receive over a networkinformation from a publisher by an advertising platform comprising adata processing system, said data processing system including aprocessor configured to process logic to determine user context, selectand retrieve candidate advertisements and send advertisements, wherein:the information corresponds to a search request initiated by a user at auser interface communicable with a media channel; and the publisher isassociated with provisioning of the media channel; detect a geolocation,by a position detection device, of a user device of the user; determinea context of the user by logging ad performance data based on userinteraction data with a set of advertisements and adding ad performancedata based on user interaction data to historical data records at ahistorical performance database, and establishing user preferences basedon assessment of the historical data records; receive a publishergeosensitivity level at a user interface processing at the advertiserplatform and storing the publisher geosensitivity level to a publisherprofile stored at an advertiser platform database; access the publisherprofile for the publisher and identifying the geosensitivity level,among a plurality of defined geosensitivity levels, of the publisher,wherein the geosensitivity level specifies a level of importance, amonga plurality of defined levels of importance, that a location has onranking advertisements select the candidate advertisements, by aweighted advertisement rotation algorithm processing at the dataprocessing system where a weight is assigned based on relative spendingof advertisers and ad impressions are rotated based on assigned weight,the selection being based at least in part on (a) the geosensitivitylevel of the publisher identified based on the publisher profile andbased at least in part on (b) a first search category identified by thedata processing system for the search request, the first search categorycorresponding to (i) a set of one or more topics to which the searchrelates and (ii) determined geolocations of businesses or services in adetermined geographic area within a predetermined distance proximate tothe detected geolocation of the user device of the user; select thecandidate advertisements based on the ranking criteria selected andelectronically storing in a candidate advertisement database on thenetwork the candidate advertisements in two or more electronic storagebucket locations, where the candidate advertisement are sorted in theelectronic storage bucket locations by higher and lower rankings; selectand retrieve from the candidate advertisement datatbase, by a weightedadvertisement rotation algorithm processing at the data processingsystem, candidate advertisements where the candidate advertisementdatabase includes at least one or more of an advertisement databasehaving subscription advertisements stored and an advertisement databasehaving pay-per-call advertisements stored using a single API to createan advertisement candidate pool, the retrieving based on (a) the contextof the user, (b) the detected geolocation of the user device and (c) thesearch request, where selecting and retrieving includes one or more of,processing one or more of filtering logic based on business rules of apublisher and scoring using a ranking function based on business value,and where selecting and retrieving includes one or more of, processingintermediate sorting logic using one or more of a weighted sort and afixed sort and processing a final sorting based on geo-relevance andsearch request; rank, with a geo-relevant sorting technique of theweighted advertisement rotation algorithm, a set of the candidateadvertisements according to the identified geo-sensitivity level of thepublisher based in part on respective distances between one or morelocations, of the advertisers, corresponding to the candidateadvertisements and the detected geolocation of the user device of theuser; and provide, by the advertising platform, visible indicia of, oneor more, top ranked advertisements from the ranked set of candidateadvertisements to the user interface of a display device and displayingthe visible indicia on the display with the user interface of the userdevice for user interaction.
 18. The data processing system of claim 17,wherein the at least one processor is additionally configured to performoperations further comprising: wherein rankings for each of the set ofadvertisements is determined using a criterion selected based at leastin part on a primary search category for the search request and an inputgeo accuracy of the search request.
 19. The method of claim 1, whereinthe geosensitivity level further specifies a pre-selected level ofimportance accorded to distance for qualifying advertisements, thepre-selected level being a most important factor, a least importantfactor, or a factor that is neither a most important factor nor a leastimportant factor.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the geosensitivity level further specifies apre-selected level of importance accorded to distance for qualifyingadvertisements, the pre-selected level being a most important factor, aleast important factor, or a factor that is neither a most importantfactor nor a least important factor.
 21. The method of claim 1, wherein:the closer a location associated with an advertisement of the set ofcandidate advertisements is to the detected geolocation of the userdevice of the user, the higher the advertisement is ranked in the set ofcandidate advertisements.
 22. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein: the closer a location associatedwith an advertisement of the set of candidate advertisements is to thedetected geolocation of the user device of the user, the higher theadvertisement is ranked in the set of candidate advertisements.
 23. Thedata processing system of 17, wherein: the closer a location associatedwith an advertisement of the set of candidate advertisements is to thedetected geolocation of the user device of the user, the higher theadvertisement is ranked in the set of candidate advertisements.